Nation/World Briefs

February 26, 2006

INTERNATIONAL BRIEFING MANAMA, BAHRAIN

Al-Qaida pledges more attacks on oil sites

Al-Qaida on Saturday vowed more attacks on Saudi oil facilities, a day after an attempt to bomb the world's biggest oil processing complex showed the group still can strike inside the kingdom. A strike on the Abqaiq complex, near Saudi Arabia's eastern Persian Gulf coast, could have been devastating. Nearly two-thirds of the country's oil flows through the facility for processing before export. Foiling the attack demonstrated Saudi Arabia's success in putting tough security around the oil industry, the source of the royal family's wealth, oil analysts said. It was the first attack on Saudi Arabia's vital oil infrastructure. The Saudi branch of al-Qaida, which claimed the attack, warned in an Internet statement Saturday that suicide bombers will target more oil facilities. "There are more like them who are racing toward martyrdom and eager to fight the enemies of God," the posting said. "You will see things that will make you happy, God willing." INTERNATIONAL BRIEFING SAN JUAN DE SABINAS, MEXICO

Mine owner: Toxic gases too high for survival

Toxic gas levels inside a northern Mexican coal mine are too high for any of the 65 miners trapped inside to have survived a nearly week-old explosion, the mining company said Saturday. The government and scientists previously said there was little hope any of those missing would be found alive. But an analysis of underground air on Saturday showed it was too poisonous to breathe, said Xavier Garcia, president of Industrial Minera Mexico, a subsidiary of mining company Grupo Mexico SA de CV. "From the period of rescue we have now come to recovery," Garcia said, his voice cracking. A pre-dawn explosion Feb. 19 that left the miners trapped released heavy amounts of methane gas and carbon monoxide that spread to every corner of the Pasta de Conchos mine, Garcia said. INTERNATIONAL BRIEFING MANILA, PHILIPPINES

Arroyo ally criticizes emergency declaration

Police arrested at least three vocal critics of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and raided a newspaper Saturday following her declaration of a state of emergency to quash a coup plot. Arroyo set off an uproar with her decree Friday as Filipinos celebrated the 20th anniversary of dictator Ferdinand Marcos' ouster in a "people power" revolt, and even some supporters questioned the move. "I was appalled," said her most crucial ally, former President Fidel Ramos, a military commander whose withdrawal of support for Marcos helped bring about his downfall. Ramos stood by Arroyo at the height of a crisis that nearly unseated her last year, and his joining her critics left her more isolated than ever.